Seven Things Wall Street Wants to Know From Elon Musk

Tesla Inc. reports first-quarter earnings Wednesday after the market closes. Between now and then, investors, customers, followers and doubters will be chattering about what Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has in store come late afternoon. Given the tumult of recent weeks, the main focus will likely be on production of the Model 3, the key to Tesla’s plan to bring electric vehicles to the masses and eventually reach profitability. But there are a lot of other questions, too.

Musk, 46, spent the last earnings call talking about how battery production at his gigafactory east of Reno, Nevada, was the “limiting factor” on Model 3 output, but we haven’t heard much about it since. The Tesla CEO has said automated assembly line components from Germany would arrive at the battery plant by March. So did they? Is the new line up and running? It’s hard to know if battery module production is still a limiting factor, or if other, unforeseen production issues have cropped up there or at Tesla’s assembly plant in Fremont, California.

Equally important is expenditures: Tesla ended 2017 with $3.4 billion in cash on hand and $9.4 billion in outstanding debt. Many analysts said Tesla will need to raise money again, despite the company’s stated position that “it does not require an equity or debt raise this year, apart from standing credit lines” when it reported delivery and production figures in early April.

While production and cash will be the main focus (Bloomberg Gadfly columnist Liam Denning addressed the cash issue here), journalists, analysts and prospective buyers will be listening for details on many other pressing issues. Here are seven of them: